The relief, which is only partially visible, may represent a “Triumph of Bacchus” or a festive scene of drinking cupids. A depiction of excessive drinking could be interpreted as a moralizing warning and as an encouragement of temperance—one of the virtues expected of women—but the relief could also function simply as a decorative scene of merriment.

The RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History) archive houses a letter by R. J. te Rijdt dated 24 November 1993, which confirms that the inscription is in eighteenth-century script.

Genealogical information about this couple is based on Piet Bakker’s unpublished research into the baptism, marriage, and burial registers in the Regionaal Archief Leiden (RAL) and Gemeente-archief Dordrecht (GAD). Dina Margareta’s father, Johan Pauw de Bye (1650–1715), owned Rapenburg 2 and lived there with his family from 1676 until 1715. According to the marriage register dated 5 May 1703, Dina Margareta resided on the Rapenburg: RAL, Arch. no. 1004, inv. no. 28, “Nederlands Hervormd Ondertrouw (1575–1795)”.

After ressettling in Leiden after her husband’s death in 1732, Dina purchased her parents’ house on the Rapenburg. According to the estate inventory made after her death in 1740, she had decorated the large room facing the Rapenburg with “three paintings in gilt frames, that is, one portrait of Mr. and two of Mrs. Van der Dussen.”

Dina may have wished to have a different type of portrait—one as a mother—when she got pregnant after her marriage, leading her to pose for Van Mieris only after the birth of her child in 1704. The date inscribed on the picture plane has usually been read as “1705.” Although the last digit is rather unclear and could be read as a 1 instead of a 5, it is less plausible that the portrait was made in 1701. Portraits of unmarried women typically did not have a composition designed for a companion painting to be hung on the left side of the picture. For examples of such portraits, see Eddy de Jongh, Portretten van echt en trouw: Huwelijk en gezin in de Nederlandse kunst van de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (Zwolle, 1986), 73–75, 79–80, 83–86, 93–95, nos. 4, 6, 8, 10.

Willem van Mieris made preparatory drawings for his paintings; most of them are the same size as his paintings. The present drawing, however, is half the size of the final picture. For Willem van Mieris’s preparatory drawings, see Emke Elen-Clifford Kocq van Breugel, “Tekeningen van Willem van Mieris (1662–1747) in relatie tot zijn schilderijen,” Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 4 (1985): 152–58.

Lunsingh Scheurleer et al., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, 6 vols. and index (Leiden 1986–92), 2:329–36. Catharina (1689–1766), married to the textile manufacturer and art collector Allard de la Court, indeed made flower paintings. A few examples survive, such as the one in the Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal. She even made drawn copies after drawings by Willem van Mieris.

The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination of the X-radiograph and panel reverse images by Ian Tyers. According to Tyers, the panel has good potential for dendrochronology.